Maged Zaher

The Pacific poetry landscape is diverse, different slices of countries, and within each country, different sets of minority groups across gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, etc…

Susan as an editor is very inventive. She does not just create a body of work that reflects such diverse populations she is working within, but also she allows this diversity to manifest itself in the shape of books that Susan puts out in the world. A quick visual inspection shows that Tinfish books come in all shapes and sizes and forms and paper type, thickness, color, and quality. Heck, such books sometimes ship with a pencil, a CD, and in one particular case, the book was wrapped in a hamburger slip.

Please take a look at the picture above of just the first set of Tinfish books I spread on the table at random to illustrate the point. How does Susan allow such multiplicity, while keeping a distinct touch that is all hers, is the secret of a seasoned editor.

This diversity of Tinfish authors’ identity and physical books carries within it the fundamental diversity at play in poetry and the so called “avant garde": diversity in poetic form. Documentary poetics, translations, Haiku, performance pieces, multi-language poems, etc…

Supporting all of this is a vision, an ability to execute that is flawless. And a certain gentleness: when working directly with Susan as an author, she exhibits a no-nonsense, kind, and very diligent yet, as an editor, uses a light touch. She understood what I wanted to do and helped me get there. The book that I give the most as a gift from my books is my book with Tinfish.